the 16th step
by starflight14
Summary: A story of a child who died and now haunts anyone invading his house     warning: Parts can get extremely descriptive and gory


It was a stormy night. Charly had just climbed out of bed, and was going down stairs to find a drink of water. As he opened the door to his room, he couldn't see anything. He had traveled the path from his room to the kitchen many times, so he didn't bother flipping the light switch to his right. Everything was going fine, until he was about 30 feet in. His family was very wealthy and he lived in one of those old style houses. There was a faulty step on the 16th step down, and when you hit it just wrong; it would make a huge gunshot noise. As he was stepping down, he was still half asleep and mistakenly hit the step. A huge shot like sound came out; he screamed and fell over the handles of the spiral stair case. He came crashing down 30 feet, and hit the marble floor at full force. The last thing Charly saw, was the bedroom light of his parents room flashing on.

Two years later, the house belonged to a new boy. His family had come into some money, and the house was for a great deal. No one had told them what had happened in the house two years ago. As the little boy was sitting in his room playing with his toys, he heard a small noise at the door. He stood up, and walked over and opened the door but was confused when no one was there. He walked away scratching his head, and sat back down to play. After he was sent to bed, he had an odd dream. He dreamed he was sitting in the living room of his house. There was nothing around, just him and his living room. He heard a door crack open. He then heard tiny footsteps walking down the hall. When the boy reached the stairs, he started walking down. There were 22 steps and when Charly reached the 17th step down, kid woke up to a huge explosion of lightning. He ran to his mother's room screaming, ignoring the stairs to his left. After he explained the dream to his mother, she told him that it was ok, and to go back to bed. After the nightmare, he didn't have another dream for a week.

It was 2 weeks after the dream. He had almost forgotten about it, but the craziest thing about the dream was that when he awoke and saw the lightning, it seemed like the bang had came from the stairs. He had just brushed his teeth and was in bed. He had just dozed off, and he was sitting in his living room again. He heard another creek from the door upstairs. He was a little more aware and realized that the noise had come from the direction of his room. He stood up and turned around, to find a boy starting down the stairs. He remembered the dream and he covered his ears when Charly put a foot down on the 17th stair, but was shocked when no noise came. When Charly put his food down on the 18th stair, the noise boomed again and the kid woke up. He jumped out of bed and ran onto the hallway to check out the stairs. He looked and saw a circular dark spot on the floor down there, and at the time he thought nothing of it. He was worried because he had the same dream twice and this time, the dream was more vivid. After that, he didn't have those dreams for a year.

It was finally time for the nightmare again. It had been a while since he had the dream, however he still remembered it. He was sitting in the living room of the house again. He realized the dream instantly and stood up. When Charly started walking down the stairs, the kid finally realized what was happening. He ran from his living room to the first set of stairs, ran up all of them and ran over to the staircase that the boy was on. He was waving his hands and screaming, but the kid would not pay attention. When he touched the 19th stair, a huge blast woke the boy and he just sat in bed this time. He thought about the dream and how each time he had the dream, the boy had to take one more step till the bang. He wondered what would happen when the kid ran out of steps to take. He went back to bed and no matter how hard he tried; he didn't have that dream for a long time.

Five years after the dream, he was just getting into bed. When he sat in the living room, he wasted no time and stood up. He ran up the stairs and to the second flight. When he ran up the stairs to the boy, to hold him back, the boy looked up and his face was bashed in. He realized that every time he saw the boy, Charly's face was down. There was a huge crack running from his left eye, to the right of his jaw. His nose was bloody, his eyes were missing, and his skull had a chunk missing out of it. Charly extended his hand, and grabbed the now teenager by the throat. He threw him over the stair case and right before he hit the ground, he woke up. As he sat there in his bed, he was shaking.

Charly never did have that dream again. He did not get the chance. The day after that last dream, he never was the same. He was a shell. He would not talk, eat, or drink. He was just there; they put him on tubes so he would not starve to death or dehydrate. They say that the dream killed his soul. No one knows what happened but our story with him ends there.

People in the neighborhood were always joking about that if you had a dream about you in the mansion, you would end with the same fate. This was always considered just a tall tail, until someone actually dreamed of the mansion. He realized he was just sitting in the center of the living room so he stood up. When he turned around, he saw Charly reach the bottom of the steps, jump up, and fell off. When the child hit the floor, blood splattered everywhere. The stranger walked up to the body, and to his surprise the boy stood up. His face was covered in blood, completely unrecognizable. Charly extended his arm, and grabbed him by the neck. He flung him down on the ground.

In the morning, there were sirens. Police were investigating a possible suicide and then one of the officers remembered the story so long ago. The person had fallen from the 16th step. He bashed in his head, and was dead on impact. When the family that owned the mansion got home that day, they saw two puddles of blood. When the called the police and they matched the DNA, the now fresh blood matched the blood of the boy that had died so long ago, and other traces matched the blood of the person who had died earlier that day. The family never visited the mansion again. It still sits there, untouched. Anyone who has ever entered, has died 16 years later. They say the spirit of the boy still lives there, trying to quench his thirst, by shedding blood.

Here is a message to you. If you should ever find yourself dreaming of a strange mansion, that you have never seen before, do whatever the hell you can to wake up. Some have made it, some have not. Every now and then, a kid gets brave and tries to break into the house. 16 years later, that kids blood would be found in a fresh puddle on the floor of that house.


End file.
